This is the first post I've written in over a year. Sometimes we just need to take sabbaticals from things. I've wondered when I'd feel like posting again. I don't post for the sake of posting but because I feel like I really have something to share.
So today, as I was reading an email from a friend who is serving as a missionary in Kenya this summer, I knew it was time to post. Beth is serving outside of Nairobi at a school and home for special needs children. She teaching music and English and building relationships. She's there because God has called her there. And because she's worked hard all year to make it a reality. And because she's moved past her fears and has taken huge leaps of faith.
As I read her recent update, sitting in a crowded Starbucks, I couldn't help but cry. Fortunately I was sitting in a corner and didn't draw much attention to myself. She wrote about the struggles and difficulties that the children she's met have dealt with for most of their lives. But my tears were not for the kids as much as they were for Beth. God is breaking her heart for what breaks His. And God is creating a compassion in her that is beyond herself. And that makes me proud to know her and proud to be her pastor.
Below is Beth's email. Please pray for her while she serves and follow her blog as she shares her experiences.
Hey all,
It's hard to believe I've been here a week already, but at the same time, it's hard to believe I've ONLY been here a week! Time is passing strangely. I need a debrief after today.
Today I was given a reminder that these children, despite their great affection for others and their enthusiasm for learning, have not all had an easy life. I was giving a recorder lesson after school to one of the teachers, and one of the special needs students followed me into the classroom and was hanging out during the lesson.
This student is probably about 10 years old. He is hearing, but non-verbal, sometimes making sounds, but never words. He alternates between giving me a huge grin while running up to grab me in the most violent of hugs, and zoning out into another world entirely. He has a tendency to eat anything and everything, and in the middle of my lesson with the teacher, he decided to eat an entire piece of chalk, and proceeded to choke on it. We got him outside because he looked like he was going to throw up, but he ended up coughing for a minute, then he was fine.
The teacher explained to me that this particular student came from an area in Kenya that was pretty hard-hit by the post-election violence in 2007-2008, and a lot of his behaviors are probably a result of that. He didn’t get enough food to eat during the violence, so now he eats everything. He most likely has PTSD, and she said sometimes he will scream and have fits like he’s seeing something that no one else can, probably flashbacks to the violence. It is hard knowing that this sweet, loving boy is suffering so much.
There is another girl here with lots of anxiety issues who often chews on her fingers, and the teacher told me that she was in the area affected by the post-election violence, too. She had been left in the forest by her mother, because her mother believed it was safer for her there.
It’s easy for me to take special needs in stride, being a teacher. A student can’t hear? She can still follow directions, feel the vibrations of the music, and participate. A student can’t use his right hand? He can still play the notes from G on up on the recorder. But, having gotten to know how wonderful and loving these children are, it’s hard to take in stride what some of them have been through to get them here.
Living in a broken world hurts.
